That's the Way It Is 10-30-11

FIRST READING—Hebrews 3: 5-8

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.

SECOND READING—John 3: 5-8
Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
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God, who spoke the world into being and who listens to our every cry, remind us that we are your treasured creations. Open our hearts and minds to you this day. Amen
I used to wonder why the New Testament shows Jesus interacting with so many people who have such difficulty comprehending what Jesus is saying. From our perspective, and, of course, we are reading from the end of the story; it seems much easier to understand. It would seem that the writers of the New Testament not only recorded what they saw, they also did it in such a way as make it possible for all of us through-out the centuries to come to have a way to experience Jesus’ teachings in our own lives exactly as they impacted this myriad group of ‘not so smart’ folks. I, for one, take great comfort in all of that—that we each learn and respond to the teachings of Jesus in unique ways depending on where we are in our own lives at the time. God’s Word touches us as a precious gift, created by God to speak in ways that we cannot help but hear. What a gift we have!
Today we continue in the third of five sermons relating to the various ways we live into and live out of our faith. Borrowing from Ronald C. Williams, we have called those “faith-styles”. In our first week, we focused on action-oriented folks—those who bring an attitude of “let’s do it” to our community. Those same people make good planners as long as those plans get put into action without too much delay. They bring an active, energetic spirit to our community, and, quite frankly, those folks are the ones we depend on to keep us moving. Secondly, there are the purpose-oriented folks. They are the people who keep us focused, keep us moving toward a common goal or purpose. They are the planners of programs and missions—constantly asking the rest of us if our activities are in alignment with our purpose. They are the “where are we going?” folks who help keep the rest of us on stable ground pursuing our vision.
Today, we come to the somewhat elusive faith-style called the “creative” faith style. They are the dreamers, and the ones we turn to when we’ve run out of ideas or find ourselves stuck in the same-old-same-old. But they do so within the framework of faith; so, I want to spend some time today looking at what scripture has to say to us about creativity and faith. You don’t have to look far.
The writer of Hebrews had much to say about faith. In fact, Hebrews 11 gives us the most-often quoted definition of faith: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” It is good, on this day when we celebrate All Saints’ Day, to note that the ancients, the saints that preceded us are commended for their faith. And so we start on solid ground. In Hebrews 3, our first reading for today, the relationship between faith and creativity become obvious. Here the writer tells us that the ‘fundamental fact of existence” (you can’t go deeper than that), “the fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see.” Our ancestors, these saints who we celebrate today were set apart from the crowd by their very acts of faith. And then we hear, “ By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see. “ So we affirm, in language both comforting and awe-inspiring just this—the creative power of God—the word of God—which resulted in the existence of the world, illustrates for us what it means to believe even when we cannot see exactly how God’s act of creation occurred. But our affirmation falters sometimes and we are not alone.
Listen to Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus. What precedes our passage is the story that Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a learned teacher of Jewish law, comes to see Jesus. Nicodemus is sincere, telling Jesus that he knows that Jesus must be from God because of all the things he knows Jesus has done. Jesus’ response is supportive. He acknowledges that Nicodemus understands these things because he has been born again. Just when we sit back and think that, at last, someone got it the first time around, Nicodemus loses his grasp on spiritual understanding and asks the very physical question about having to re-enter a mother’s womb in order to be born again. So close and so far away.
“Jesus said, ‘You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.’” Jesus takes us to a spiritual place of understanding in this answer. We cannot hope to understand the fullness of this event is we have not experienced the “wind-hovering-over-the-water” creation. Jesus continues, “So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
This is God’s creativity at work and those who have some portion of the creative style of faith work, seem to be able to work in this ‘creative space’, this spiritual place where ideas can be explored, risks can be taken, and comfort gained in the connection between divine creativity and ours. These are usually our “think-outside–the-box folks—those who challenge us to try not just newish things, but completely new and untried things in our worship and ministries.
The creative process in the context of ministry and worship gives us the opportunity to bring order to disorder. The chaotic free-floating creativity allowing us to experiment and take great risks is brought into order by those who are willing to suspend the search for simple answers, however briefly, and allow themselves to encounter the every-which-away blowing of the spirit. Most of us are far more creative in our approach to faith than we realize. By relegating the creative style to artists, musicians, and poets among us, we cut ourselves short of the amazing energy and imagination that comes when we align ourselves with the free-flowing wind of the Holy Spirit.
When we find our worship going stale or our ideas losing their punch, it is to those most in touch with the creative spirit of God to whom we turn. The key to staying vibrant as a Christian community and alive and awake to the possibilities that lie ahead is to maintain a close working relationship with those who most thoroughly understand God’s creative process and open our hearts to learn both from them and from God’s Spirit, the great creator of all of us and all that it around us.
It is hard for some of us task-oriented and purpose-oriented folks to welcome those who think in what appears to be chaotic, difficult to follow ways. And it is just for that reason, that creative faith is just one of the quarters of the pie that develop into the diversynergy that calls to all of us to become more than we thought we could be as mere individuals working on our separate paths. We are three fourths of the way through the pie of diversynergy—what waits for us to explore in the next sermon is the faith style that is about growth—not only simple growth in terms of numbers and ministries, but also the more important growth in spiritual formation. I trust that somewhere in the process of what we are learning that many of you have already identified a faith-style that resonates with your own.
Our final sermon in this series will walk us through the central ideas of diversynergy—that is, God’s spirit calling to work for the greater good of all of God’s wonderful creation and giving us the great gift of being an integral part of a joint work that far exceeds our expectations. Here, in God’s divine diversynergy, we find ourselves clearly in the midst of God’s exceeding abundance. And, here, in God’s plenteous diversynergy, we locate our personal calls and understand how each of us brings an individual and unique faith style to place on the altar of all our work together. It is a mighty and grand experience to witness God’s exceeding abundance in the myriad of gifts God sets before us again and again! And to that we say, Amen and Amen.